The Department of Conservation and the Central Otago District Council (CODC) remain at loggerheads over payment of a $100,000 bill for an easement for a 150mm water pipe under the Otago Central Rail Trail.
Doc has instructed the Crown solicitor to "take the appropriate action" to recover the money.
According to documents sent by Doc to the Otago Daily Times, within the agreement is provision for the charge to be reviewed by the Minister of Conservation under section 17JZ of the Conservation Act 1987.
Doc claims the water pipe is to serve Molyneux Estate, as it was the developer who applied for the easement in the first place, and has charged accordingly.
Mayor Malcolm Macpherson declined to be interviewed about the issue.
Doc's Otago conservator, Jeff Connell, could not be contacted yesterday.
Alexandra businessman and director of Molyneux Estate Ltd, Russell Ibbotson, said yesterday he believed the minister had not reviewed the cost as correctly required in accordance with the provisions of the Act and Doc's own Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
The charge had been reviewed by Doc in Christchurch and the amount remained the same, Mr Ibbotson said.
The council shared the installation costs of the pipeline, which it now owns, and the new pipeline enabled the completion of a ring main for Alexandra water supply and an upgrading of the town's infrastructure, he said.
"The pipeline and ring main had always been a part of the council's forward planning," Mr Ibbotson said.
"An earlier precedent in which the council was charged 10c for an easement across Lanes Dam to serve the Old Golf Course subdivision with a total of 33 lots, is being totally ignored by Doc," he said.
Documents indicate that pipeline was considered to be for the "public good", as it was owned by council.
"Doc should surely appreciate that there's a huge difference between 10 cents and $100,000 where similar circumstances apply," Mr Ibbotson said.
There is no reference to the 10c charge in documents provided by Doc to the ODT, although they do show a water pipe easement for Bobs Cove through a recreation reserve in Queenstown also cost $100,000 for 100 sections.
